A group of Israeli settlers occupied by force a residential room stores and a house yard in Wadi Hilweh village in Silwan town south of al-Aqsa Mosque at dawn Friday.
According to Wadi Hilweh Information Center the Israeli settlers forcibly took control over a 30-square-meter room as well as a house yard with an area of 50 square meters which the family of the Jerusalemite Izzat Salah use as a corridor leading to their house.
The settlers also broke into stores owned by Qaraeen family over an area of about 200 square meters which were used as livestock barns.
Eyewitnesses reported that a group of Israeli settlers escorted by Israeli police forces stormed at dawn the Qaraeen’s barns and completely cordoned them before changing the locks of the doors and surrounding them with an iron fence. The settlers scuffled with the people who own the barns who were trying to prevent them from approaching their property.
The family members of Izzat Salah are now trapped in their own house as the Israeli police forces who were present at the scene to secure the Israeli settlers prevented them from going out after the settlers took over the corridor and closed the iron gate leading to the house Wadi Hilweh Information Center said.
Following the takeover the Qaraeen family went to the court in an attempt to get a judicial order to evict settlers from their property.
This is the fourth time the settlers seize property in occupied Jerusalem since the beginning of 2017.
An atmosphere of anger and resentment overshadowed Silwan town and its neighborhoods and inhabitants especially that settler associations in cooperation with some brokers and with the support of Israel constantly seek to seize more Palestinian property in the region and turn them into settlement outposts.
